Chapter 1566 – Second Grade Divine Runic Master Examination
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During this divine runic master examination, four people had rapidly earned the qualifications for a first grade divine runic master and even wanted to continue onwards to the second grade examination. Throughout all of the previous examinations of years past, this was a particularly rare phenomenon.
“That human boy Lin Ming, he wants to take the second grade divine runic master examination… It seems a year ago he was pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger.” Old Su commented. He didn’t believe that someone could learn the divine runic arts to such a degree in just a single year.
“That’s the only explanation.” Old Xue nodded. “This boy, I can’t believe he’s bored enough to do all of this. I wonder just what his skeletal age is. I think he isn’t too old, so for him to have these accomplishments at a young age is quite incredible…”
As Old Xue spoke, a flame sparked in front of him, brilliantly burning.
This was the light of a sound transmitting talisman. Before, he had ordered his subordinate to go to the city gate guards and look up Lin Ming’s records from when he first arrived.
The message was very simple. It provided information for when Lin Ming first entered the city, including his cultivation boundary and other assessments. And more importantly, his skeletal age.
After Old Xue listened to the information on Lin Ming, his mouth fell open and his eyes went out of focus. He wasn’t able to respond for a long time.
Old Su stared at Old Xue’s reaction. Through this, he was faintly aware that the message from the sound transmitting talisman wasn’t ordinary at all. “Hey old man, what’s the matter, why don’t you say something?”
After being dazed for some time, Old Xue forced a smile. He murmured, “I’m afraid you won’t believe me. I can’t even believe myself.”
“What is it?” Old Su hurriedly asked.
Old Xue waved his hand. Using his soul force he collected the not-yet-dissipated flames of the sound transmitting talisman and replayed them in Old Su’s ears. After Old Su heard this message, although he was prepared, he was still shocked speechless.
“Early Divine Lord realm cultivation, complete Eight Inner Hidden Gates opened, and when he entered the city he wasn’t even a divine runic master. Thus, they could only determine the level of his talent. And, they determined that his skeletal age is… less than 60 years old!?”
Old Su’s throat twitched. Disregarding Lin Ming’s divine runic arts talent, just his Divine Lord realm cultivation and his complete Eight Inner Hidden Gates at less than 60 years of age was the sign of an unrivalled monstrous genius. Even the talents of a True Divinity Holy Land would be hard pressed to compare!
Moreover, the most important information from the city records was that when Lin Ming first entered the city he wasn’t a divine runic master, thus they could only determine his talent. Was any of this real?
Old Su and Old Xue looked at each other. Old Xue self-mockingly said, “Now there are two possibilities. One is that when he entered the city, there was some reason we don’t know of that he had to hide his status as a divine rune master. Either that, or he really did just start studying the divine runic arts a year ago. Of course, you could say that I’m just spouting nonsense…”
Old Su reluctantly said, “Do you think it's still necessary to investigate whether or not he started practicing the divine runic arts a year ago? He is likely around 53-55 years old; that is far too young! But by such a young age, he opened the complete Eight Inner Hidden Gates, cultivated to the early Divine Lord realm, and even studied the divine runic arts! Moreover, from what it looks like he even has accomplishments in the soul forging system. Can you feel it? He has definitely cultivated some soul forging technique! I really have no idea how he manages his time. Even if he started practicing in his mother’s womb he still shouldn’t have been able to reach such heights!”
Old Su and Old Xue had no idea how to evaluate Lin Ming. But besides them, no one else knew how terrifying Lin Ming was. All they knew was that Lin Ming was an extremely splendid divine runic apprentice. Of course, he was now officially a divine runic master.
After another two hours passed, a fifth examinee finished their divine runic symbol. This person was a woman… Yue Liuxing.
This divine runic symbol that Yue Liuxing drew up hadn’t been easy. During her first attempt, a brief moment of negligence had caused her to fail a third of the way in. She had gathered her thoughts and had managed to complete the second drawing successfully. After finishing, although Yue Liuxing had exhausted a great deal of her soul force she was still bubbling with excitement. Starting from today onwards, she had finally become a divine runic master. This was something she had long desired and had been chasing after!
After her examination was complete, she turned to see two other people in the hall who she cared about. One was her little brother and the other was naturally Lin Ming.
At this time, Yue Qifeng was still immersed in drawing up his divine runic symbol. His divine runic symbol was currently 80% complete but his forehead was dripping sweat and he had used up a great deal of the power of his divine soul. Success and failure both hung on a thin string.
Yue Liuxing didn’t disturb him, but silently cheered on her little brother. Then, she looked towards Lin Ming, but discovered that he was already sitting in the resting area.
Because Yue Liuxing had focused all of her attention into drawing up her divine runic symbol, she didn’t pay attention to anything happening around her. She was completely unaware of whether or not Lin Ming had passed, and didn’t even see Clearshadow, Dreampearl, and Qin Yi’s performance.
“Lin Ming, you… could you have…”
Although she found it hard to believe, as she saw Lin Ming sitting in the rest area as well as noticing the calm and idle atmosphere to him, she suspected that he had already completed his examination.
“I’ve finished my drawing.”
Lin Ming faintly smiled towards Yue Liuxing; he had some good impressions towards this young girl.
“Draw… you finished drawing…?”
Yue Liuxing was startled. She was well aware that when they first entered the city, Lin Ming had known nothing about the divine runic arts. In fact, she was the one who had proposed they come to Divine Rune City!
How could he have only used a single year to learn the divine runic arts? Moreover, his speed was even faster than her own!
Yue Liuxing was dumbfounded by this information. She didn’t even notice the white-robed Elder asking her whether or not she wanted to continue onto the second grade divine runic master examination.
And Yue Liuxing’s reaction also fell into Old Xue’s eyes. This left him increasingly puzzled; just what secrets did Lin Ming have on him?
“This brat should have known this Yue Liuxing girl a year ago… it seems that in her eyes, Lin Ming also knew nothing about the divine runic arts a year ago.”
Old Xue’s eyes were bright and vibrant. He could immediately see just what caused such a visceral reaction in Yue Liuxing.
“Yue Liuxing, do you wish to participate in the second grade divine runic master examination? The Elder asked you a question here!” A deacon testily said as he saw Yue Liuxing not responding for a long time.
Yue Liuxing jumped up as if she were shocked but quickly regained her composure. She hurriedly apologized, “Sorry, sorry, I do not wish to join the second grade divine runic master examination. Even if I joined I wouldn’t be able to pass.”
A second grade divine runic master was too distant a prospect for Yue Liuxing right now. She needed at least 10 more years of hard work.
Not just Yue Liuxing, even Dreampearl and Clearshadow knew it would be difficult for them to pass the second grade divine runic master examination.
“Mm… then you can step back.” The deacon impatiently waved his hand.
Yue Liuxing respectfully drew back, her eyes still on Lin Ming. Lin Ming smiled. He knew what Yue Liuxing was surprised about, so he said to her with a sound transmission, “I’ll talk to you about it later.”
After Yue Liuxing left, several other divine runic apprentices failed, their incomplete divine runic symbols exploding into smoke and flames in front of their faces. And at this time, six hours had already passed since the examination started. To fail now basically meant that the divine runic apprentices would no longer be able to pass. If they couldn’t complete their drawing in the first eight hours, then unless there was some divine stroke of fate and they were possessed by some ghost, there was no way they could succeed.
These divine runic apprentices were well aware of their limits and decided to directly give up.
And within these people, the persistent Yue Qifeng seemed particularly conspicuous. His body trembled but he maintained a steady flow of soul force. After seven hours, he finally drew up his last tiny rune. Then, he fused the divine runic symbol with a god rune, forming a complete divine runic symbol.
Although this was only the most low level of divine runic symbols, it caused an abundance of joy to shine on Yue Qifeng’s voice.
The moment Yue Qifeng completed his drawing he nearly collapsed to the floor. He slumped backwards in a chair, a grin spreading across his face. He couldn’t even summon the energy to wipe away his sweat.
He had finally succeeded.
Yue Qifeng was 20 some years younger than Lin Ming and actually managed to become a first grade divine runic master; he could also be called an amazing young elite!
Of course, Yue Qifeng specialized in divine runic arts and wasn’t too splendid in his martial arts cultivation. And with so many extraordinary individuals here today, this caused his praiseworthy performance to not be noticed by too many people.
Seeing Yue Qifeng’s reaction, Lin Ming sighed with emotion. In the past when he drew up his first inscription symbol he had been about the same as Yue Qifeng.
After Yue Qifeng, another divine runic apprentice managed to complete his drawing. But after him, the dozen some remaining examinees all failed.
Thus, out of everyone present, seven people had managed to pass the first grade divine runic master examination. As for those that had decided to participate in the second grade examination, there were only four – they were Lin Ming, Clearshadow, Dreampearl, and Qin Yi!
The Divine Runic Masters Guild was timely and decisive. The second grade divine runic master examination would soon begin!
Compared to a first grade divine runic symbol, a second grade divine runic symbol was on a completely different level!
Drawing up a divine runic symbol was divided into three main sections. The first was processing the materials, the second was to use one’s soul force to draw up the materials into tiny runes. And the third part was to fuse the divine runic symbol with a god rune.
Of these three parts, the most difficult was not the second part, but the third part – fusion!
The third part was also the most essential aspect of the divine runic arts. The reason that the divine runic arts were separate from inscription technique and even far outstripped it was because of this third part, because it fused the Asura Road’s Heavenly Dao into it!
Because of this, divine runic symbols were symbols that represented the Heavenly Dao.
And only in higher levels of divine runic arts would the difficulty of this third part slowly manifest. The higher the grade of divine runic arts, the more difficult the third part would be. There were many high grade divine runic arts that would fail in the face of the infinitely powerful and mysterious Asura Heavenly Dao.
As for the lowest level of divine runic symbols, the third step was only a brief detour. In truth, it wasn’t too significant and at the lowest levels, divine runic symbols were nearly similar to inscription technique, whether it was in regards to their effects or fundamental nature.
However, upon reaching a second grade divine runic symbol, the difficulty of the third step would appear slightly. To a divine runic apprentice, this was a massive test!